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City Club, The Candidates’ Debate

The following candidates took part in the City Club's debate on March 1, 2000.
* Ted Celeste
* Richard Cordray
* Marvin McMickle
* Daniel I. Radakovich

Ted Celeste

Ted Celeste has dedicated more than 30 years of his life to public service, education, and business development, helping to improve our quality of life here in Ohio. Ted and his wife Bobbie, a counseling psychologist, live in Columbus. They have two daughters, Christiana, 26, and Liz, 18.

From the Peace Corps to his volunteer position on The Ohio State University Board of Trustees, Ted has made public service a priority in his life. Recently, Ted completed his nine-year term on The Ohio State University Board of Trustees, serving as Chairman of the Board from May of 1998 to May of 1999. Drawing on his years of experience in the high-tech industry, Ted pursued the creation of OSU’s Science and Technology Campus which houses space for biotech and biomedical startup companies and helps the high-growth companies and private technology-based companies connected to OSU expand. Ted’s efforts have linked the public and private sectors together, helping to create high paying jobs for Ohioans.

For the past 16 years, Ted’s business activities have centered around enterprises he has founded and led, including real estate development and interactive communications marketing. He is currently president of Celeste & Associates Real Estate, Inc., a residential real estate company in Grandview Heights. Ted also currently serves on the Board of the Business Technology Center in Columbus and the Business Advisory Council for the Grandview Heights Schools.

In the 1980s, his entrepreneurial activities focused on interactive communications. Ted founded and was Chair of Advanced Interactive Video, Inc., an electronic marketing and promotions company with interactive video kiosks in 250 retail locations. During this time, Ted published several articles on the developing high-tech economy, including “The Revolution is at Hand - What Road Shall We Take” for Interactive Multimedia News. Ted was also a featured speaker at several national conferences related to interactive video.

As a developer and businessman in Cleveland and Columbus, Ted served as President of National Housing Corporation, a Cleveland development firm; President of New Town Housing, a redeveloper of urban property in the Victorian Village section of Columbus; and President of the Columbus Magic Soccer Team, the capital city’s first national soccer franchise.

Ted’s community service activities have included being a member of the Community Coordinated Child Care Committee; a member and president of the Italian Village Society; and a board member of the Godman Guild Settlement House. Ted has also been active at First Community Church, serving on the Worship and Arts and Mission Councils. In addition, Ted and his family have also hosted international social workers and students from Egypt, Japan and Nigeria.

Ted’s first public service came in the U.S. Peace Corps where he and his wife, Bobbie, taught school in the Fiji Islands in 1969 and 1970. Later in state government, he served as assistant to the Director of the Ohio Department of Finance and chief of the Bureau of Consumer Services in the Ohio Department of Public Welfare during the 1970s.

The Celeste family tradition of leadership, public service and public policy in Ohio dates back nearly 50 years. His father Frank P. Celeste served as Mayor of Lakewood for 8 years and ran for Cleveland Mayor and Ohio Attorney General in the 1960s. His brother Richard F. Celeste was a State Representative from 1971 to 1974, Ohio Lt. Governor from 1975 to 1978 and Governor from 1983 to 1990.

A native of Lakewood, Ohio, Celeste earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Wooster. He spent a summer studying German at the University of Vienna in Austria. He took additional training in education at the University of Hawaii for the Peace Corps and at the University of Akron for the Teacher Corps. His personal interests include writing and cheering for his favorite sports teams, the Buckeyes, Browns and Indians.

Richard Cordray

Richard Cordray recognizes that opportunity for many young people can only come through a strong education, because that is how he himself got started. He constantly acknowledges that committed parents and several teachers who took a special interest in him have made all the difference in his own life.

He was awarded his law degree with honors from the University of Chicago Law School in 1986, which he attended on a full tuition scholarship. He also had the honor of serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.

He received his master’s degree from Oxford University in England in 1983. He was one of the few students to earn First Class Honours in his field of Philosophy, Politics & Economics. He attended Oxford on a George C. Marshall Scholarship from the British government, and enjoyed playing on the basketball team, which won the British Universities championship in his last year and traveled widely to participate in tournaments from Ireland to Egypt.

His did his undergraduate work in James Madison College at Michigan State University, where he graduated summa cum laude in 1981. He was Phi Beta Kappa and majored in what was called “Justice, Morality, and Constitutional Democracy.” He attended college on a full academic scholarship, and was captain and a national all-star in the quiz game “College Bowl.”

He is married, and his wife Peggy teaches at the Capital University Law School. They have a twin son and daughter (Danny and Holly), who were born on October 18, 1998 - on Peggy’s birthday in the home stretch of the statewide campaigns!

Richard Cordray was born May 3, 1959 in Columbus, Ohio. He attended public schools in Grove City, was co-valedictorian of his high school class, and served as Chaplain for the Grove City chapter of DeMolay. He is the middle child of brothers Frank and Jim.

His father is Frank Sr., now retired, was the program director for the mentally retarded residents at Orient Development Center, where he worked for 43 years. Richard’s mother, Ruth, who died in 1980, was a social worker and teacher who founded the first foster grandparent program for the mentally retarded in Ohio.

Richard Cordray serves on the Advisory Board for the Friends of the Homeless, which provides transitional housing and services to the homeless. He is past Chair of the Hilltop YMCA Board, and past Vice-Chair of the Board of Visitors at James Madison College. He was the Keynote Speaker at the National Federalism Summit in 1995.

He was an undefeated five-time champion on the “Jeopardy!” television program in 1987 and a semifinalist in the tournament of Champions.

Marvin A. McMickle

Personal:
Born: December 16, 1948 in Chicago, Illinois
Married to Peggy N. McMickle June 7, 1975
One Son, Aaron James Student at University of Buffalo, NY

Pastoral:
Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church of Cleveland, Ohio 1987 to the present
Pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church of Montclair, NJ 1976-1986
Associate Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church, NYC, 1972-1976

Academic:
Associate Professor of Homiletics, Ashland Theological Seminary, Ashland, OH 1996-
Visiting Instructor in History and Religion, Cleveland State University, 1993-1996
Visiting Instructor in History and Political Science, Case Western Reserve, 1993-1996
Instructor in Preaching, Princeton Theological Seminary, 1982-1986
Lecturer in Old Testament, New York Theological Seminary and at Ossining Correctional Facility, NY, 1982-1985
Instructor in Preaching, New Brunswick Theological Seminary, 1982-1986.

Publications:
From Pulpit to Politics: Reflections on the Separation of Church and State, Williams Custom Printing, Euclid, OH, December, 1998.
Preaching to the Black Middle Class, Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA to be released in January 2000.

Sermons and Articles:
* “The Disciplines of Discipleship”, Pulpit Digest, July/August 1999.
* “Peace: An Elusive Possession”, The Living Pulpit, October-December, 1998, pp. 38-39.
* “The Lord is Come! The Song of Simeon”, Preaching, November-December, 1998.
* “The Black Preacher and Issues of Justice”, The African American Pulpit, Winter, 1998.
* “The Song of Zacharias”, Preaching-On-Line, The Internet service of Preaching, November, 1998.
* “The Song of the Angels”, Preaching-On-Line The Internet Service of Preaching, October, 1998.
* “The Story of Mary and Martha”, The African American Pulpit, Summer 1998.
* “Testimony of the Tortured”, Messages for Modern Times, Larry L.Macon, Sr. Ed. Kendall Hunt Publishers, 1998.
* “The Art of Preaching”, Messages for Modern Times, pp. 69-70.
* “No Room in the Inn: Reflections on Advent”, The Living Pulpit, October - December, 1997.
* “The Many Members and the One Body of Christ”, Preaching September-October, 1997.
* “Foreword”, Responsible Preaching, by William A. Jones, Jr., Aaron Press, 1991.
* “Preaching to the Black Middle Class”, The Journal of Preaching, December, 1985.
* “And He Called Them His Disciples”, Princeton Seminary Bulletin February, 1984.

Newspaper Editorials:
Over twenty printed editorials in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Call and Post, The Cleveland Jewish News and Northern Ohio Live on political and social issues.

Community Activities:
In Ohio

President,
Shaker Heights Board of Education, 1997-
Member of the Shaker School Board since 1993

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